LCD computer monitors have come down in price over the past few years.
Most places will offer 19 LCD monitors for around $250, but they do go
up in price from there. There are a few features you want to consider
including ms response time, resolution, view angle and tilt. The better
models have built in transformers, so you dont have a box at the end of
your power cable.

You can save money with LCD monitors. Based on a 10 cent kilowatt hour,
changing from a CRT (a standard cathode ray tube monitor) to a LCD
(liquid crystal display monitor) will save you $21 a year in
electricity. This should be considered if you are waiting for the price
to drop further on LCD monitors. Will the price drop more than $21 this
year?

Also, what if electricity prices go up? Prices are likely to go up,
rather than down, so you may actually save more than $21 per year. This
was a average computed by the power company. If you are sitting in
front of an older CRT monitor it may be less efficient than the newer
models too, so you may save more.

There is also the concern for your health. CRTs produce more radiation
than LCDs. Electrons are shot from the cathode onto the display surface
to create the image. Do some of them pass through the monitor? You
bet.

ViewSonic and Acer manufacture a variety of monitors. Many of the 19
monitors will come with a 1440x900 dpi resolution (width by height).
You may find others at 1280 x 1024 dpi. These are maximum resolutions,
and most graphics cards should support this.

When you say 19, most manufacturers are talking about diagonal
measurement. Most monitors have a backlit display making it easier to
read. In fact, I would be amazed if anyone would produce a monitor
without some sort of backlighting.

As far the ms response time, the lower the number the better. Wikipeida
says the contrast ratio is a metric of a video display, defined as the
ratio of the light intensity of the brightest possible color to the
darkest possible color a display is capable of displaying
simultaneously. The higher the contrast ratio, the better the display
is. Typically 19 monitors will have 500:1 to 800:1 contrast ratios.

TFT LCD monitors are better than standard LCD monitors. TFT LCDs are a
variant of the liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor
technology to improve their image quality. TFT is a type of active
matrix LCD.

Dot pitch is another consideration. This is a measure of the distance
between the colors or dots on your monitor. The smaller the dot pitch
the better. On CRTs, the dot pitch is typically from .28 to .51mm,
while large presentation monitors may go up to 1mm. On LCD monitors, dot
pitch is typically from .16 to .29mm.

There are other features to look for of course, but these are the
basics.